Traffic jam on Truong Son Street leading to HCM City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport (Photo: VNA)HCM City(VNS/VNA) - The 21 airports in Vietnam are overloaded with the number ofpassengers estimated to increase to over 112 million this year against acapacity of 96.05 million.
Last year they handled 103.5 million passengers.
Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM Citysuffers from chronic traffic congestion inside and outside despite the effortsof the city's People’s Committee, the Ministry of Transport and other agencies.
Airport authorities have yet to identify thecontractor for building the third terminal. The new terminal will be designedto handle 20 million passengers annually, helping to resolve the trafficcongestion and develop the airport in accordance with the master plan approvedby the Government.
The overload is the reason why no more slots areallotted to foreign or local airlines at the airport.
Overloading is a serious problem also at some ofthe other international airports such as Cam Ranh airport and Da Nang airportin the central region.
Da Nang Airport, which has a capacity of 10 million passengers perannum, received 13.2 million last year.
Cam Ranh, with acapacity of 6.5 million, handled more than 8.2 million travellers last year.
The numbers ofpassengers using other airports such as Tho Xuan in Thanh Hoa province, Cat Biin Hai Phong City, Vinh in Nghe An province, Phu Cat in Bình Dinh province, andTuy Hoa in Phu Yen province have also reached the designed capacity.
According to theAirports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), since 2012 a number of airports havebeen upgraded taking the total design capacity of its airports from 50.1million passengers a year to 96.05 million.
Tan Son Nhatairport’s capacity increased from 18 million to 28 million passengers, Noi Baiairport’s from 6 million to 25 million, Da Nang airport’s from 6 million to 10million, and Cam Ranh airport’s from 2.5 million to 6.5 million.
Aviation experts say to ease the pressure on Tan Son Nhat airport,construction of Terminal 3 is an urgent requirement.
Along with the construction of the terminal, the ACV must also speed upconstruction of Long Thanh International Airport in southern Dong Nai province.
If the construction of Long Thành airport is delayed and not completedby 2025, the pressure would remain on Tan Son Nhat airport, and the areasaround it would still have to suffer from severe traffic congestion, theyadded.-VNS/VNA
VNA
